Whenever I read an autobiography, I compare my childhood experiences with those of the author. Where it's normal to live carrying guns and needing escorts just to go to the local village, in case you drive over landmines or get assaulted. While giving a sense of the continent’s political shifts, she mostly focuses on her own family: the four-person circus that was Bobo (that’s her), Van (her older sister Vanessa), Dad, and Mum (an occasionally hospitalized manic-depressive alcoholic Her writing is beautiful, descriptive.
While giving a sense of the continent’s political shifts, she mostly focuses on hA classic memoir that conjures up all the sights, sounds, smells and feelings of an Africa on the cusp of a colonial to postcolonial transition.
Growing up in the 70's as ex-pats in a country still fighting for it's own independence. She gives the reader credit for being able to figure it out. I might have liked it better if she told her memories in order, rather than jumping around so I had some clue as to where I read this book (well, most of it, I admit, I didn't finish and didn't want to) while in training as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Namibia, Africa. By Alexandra Fuller. Different time period and location, of course. I did however, feel that she should have written about how she came to see how racist her family was and how she isn't racist (or is she still? There is no real resentment from the writer towards her alcoholic, emotional and selfish Mum, only love and sometimes compassion with an admiration that only she can express in the best way. I think her voice may speak to others more than me, but I simply did not enjoy readiAn unconventional memoir, and I think Fuller's commitment to write about her life in Sub-Saharan Africa through her own perspective as a child is an interesting stylistic choice, but for some reason, I dreaded this book as I was reading it, and I couldn't wait for it to be done. Her 'unstructured' family, living in the bush of Africa, experiences both the agony and ecstasy of living in wild places, caring for wild animals and each other.
Her gift is to tell the worst of her stories in a tone that’s humorous without being flip, unsurprised without being cynical, heart-breaking without being self-pitying. You can still see all customer reviews for the product. Enjoyed it so much I bought another copy for my niece, who will be traveling to Africa next summer on a fellowship to treat diseases. When Alexandra swore never to leave Africa after nearly dying from drinking tea water tainted with Hippo dung, I was incredulous that anyone could wish to live in such harsh conditions.
The author's writing skill made it a pleasant enough read - at least, pleasant enough to finish. Fuller’s family were struggling tobacco and cattle farmers in Rhodesia (what later became Zimbabwe), Malawi and Zambia. Random House. I read an article by a book reviewer a little while ago in which they talked about how sick they were of "growing up in fill-in-the-blank" books and wished people would be more original. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. A most interesting story of growing up in turbulent times in AfricaReviewed in the United States on September 27, 2017for the most part Alexandra Fuller writes a delightful account of her life growing up in Africa with a few years off in the UK.
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I almost gave this book four stars because it was very well-written and evocative.